GFI Cloud

GFI cloud is an IT management platform that offers administrators real-time tracking of company assets, availability, and compliance. Agents installed on each computer communicate with the cloud portal to give administrators a clear overview of what is happening with each endpoint at all times. Problem machines are grouped together and flagged so that administrators can immediately see which systems need immediate action.

Rundown of Capabilities
The capabilities are determined by the type of license you have. For this review, the trial license I had gave me access to GFI VIPRE Business Online, an antivirus product that scans for potential malware infections, and GFI Network Server Monitor Online, which provides complete visibility into the health of the computer. VIPRE detects what kind of computer it is being installed on and runs the level of malware protection appropriate for that profile. Network Server Monitor Online is also profile-based in that the types of checks and scans the service runs is determined by the computer type and software installed. Asset Tracking, or the ability to track the hardware configuration of each computer and all installed software packages, is offered for free on every single system.

There are many options that can be modified, ranging from how frequently VIPRE scans files, to the kind of scans to perform, adding new network monitoring tests, modifying hardware profiles, and even configuring the frequency of tests. I sometimes had trouble finding the appropriate screen with the options, though. The same buttons went to entirely different screens depending on where that button was. I wound up clicking around various screens to try to find the correct option. It took some time and I eventually learned where things were, but it could have been easier.

While the interface is jam-packed with features, I would have preferred a little bit more attention paid to the Help sections. Clicking on the Help link opens up a form to send a note to the GFI support team. Having access to an FAQ, links to available documentation, even a list of common help topics would have made the Help section a bit more useful.

That said, the portal does have helpful cues scattered across the pages. For example, a large button clearly shows how to add new computers to the portal. Some pages also have a link with an exclamation mark (!) icon that takes the user to the relevant section on the online User Guide. Just combining some of these questions all in one place on the Help page would have gone a long way towards making it useful.

Setup and Registration
Like Panorama9's, GFI Cloud's management portal is cloud-based, so there's nothing to install. Unlike Panorama9, with GFI Cloud, each computer being monitored needs to have an agent manually installed. Administrators sign up for an account on GFICloud.com, select the services they are interested in, and then install the agent from the portal. The agents regularly "check in," or sends information to and receives instructions from GFI Cloud. So long as the computer has an Internet connection, the agent will be able to push its status up to the cloud portal.

Thanks to the agents, administrators can track the computer's health and performance even when it is not on the corporate network.

For this review of GFI Cloud, I selected both GFI VIPRE Business Online and GFI Network Server Monitor Online, and customized which machines got which level of protection.All the machines automatically were included for asset tracking.

As soon as the agent was installed, I could see the computer in the Web interface and learned that VIPRE won't run on machines that already have a security product installed. I clicked on the "Licenses" screen and modified the license to disable VIPRE on this computer. When I went back to the main screen, the computer had a "No problems detected" status.

I logged into GFI Cloud from a different computer and tapped the "Add computers" icon on the main screen to download the agent to add the next machine. I repeated the process for two more machines running Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7. I modified the Licenses screen to have VIPRE running on them both.

The platform assigned a hardware profile to each machine. I could switch profiles manually, between, laptop server, desktop, Exchange Server, Small Business Server 2003, Small Business Server 2008, Small Business Server 2011, and SQL Server. The interface also allows you to create new profiles for other hardware types.

Next: Services Under GFI Cloud

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